The EU’s newly passed Digital Markets Act may require messaging app developers to run their apps together if it goes into effect in October, as expected. The EU’s press release states that lawmakers agreed that the “watchdog” companies behind WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or iMessage should make their apps “interoperable” with smaller messaging platforms, at the request of developers.
The relevant part of the EU’s statement is as follows: “During a tripartite meeting that lasted about 8 hours (three-way talks between the Parliament, the Council and the Commission), EU lawmakers, if they so request, are free to use the largest messaging services (Whatsapp, Facebook). Agreed that they should open up to smaller messaging platforms (like Messenger or iMessage) and work together. Users of small or large platforms can then exchange messages, send files or make video calls between messaging apps, giving them more options Interoperability for social networks As regards liability, co-legislators have agreed that such interoperability provisions will be considered in the future.”
Although the law has not yet come into force, the language of the EU is likely to force companies like Apple and Meta to open systems they previously fully controlled. For example, you can only send iMessages using Apple’s iMessage app, which runs on their own devices. The EU wants to force Apple to allow other messaging apps to interface with iMessage. This means you can have a conversation between an iMessage user on an iPhone and a Telegram user on a Windows PC.
The language used in the press release is unclear as to whether major apps should work together (for example, WhatsApp users can send to iMessage). But it is clear that the EU is trying to break down the borders around them for small players.
Establishing this type of interoperability can have complex implications, especially when encryption is involved. The final decision is therefore expected to include staggered deadlines to accommodate different levels of interoperability. For example, it may only have three months to make one-on-one messaging cross-compatible, but two years to make group text messages interoperable, or four years for voice or video calls. This period begins to run when a smaller developer requests interoperability with the owner of the larger application.
Meta has already bundled some messaging systems (its own) and Apple offered carriers a more open version of iMessage years ago. Steve Jobs introduced FaceTime as open source. More recently, however, Apple’s perspective has changed. Leaked internal communications implied that one of the reasons Apple didn’t bring iMessage to Android was to support iPhone sales.
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